‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Director Confirms Major Easter Eggs

Kim Taylor-Foster
Movies Marvel
Movies Marvel

Ever since Marvel fans caught a glimpse of the Grandmaster’s palace in the Thor: Ragnarok trailer, and the head sculptures affixed to the exterior, there’s been plenty of speculation over who their likenesses are.

Well, we need speculate no more. The film’s director, Taika Waititi, has laid the chatter to rest in an exclusive interview with FANDOM. He confirmed the names of a handful of Marvel characters.

“There are great ones there,” he said. “One of the great ones is… there’s Bi-Beast, there’s Man-Thing. There’s one other — I can’t remember — is it a monkey? The main one, though, that everyone loves, is Beta Ray Bill.”

Is Ares there as well?

“Ares? Yeah, sure,” Waititi said before adding, “You’re talking to the wrong guy…”

Contest of Champions

Thor Ragnarok
Thor and Hulk battle it out.

The latest addition to the ‘gargoyle’ collection is Hulk. The heads represent previous reigning champs from the Contest of Champions, a competition run by Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster. Hulk is the Grandmaster’s current champion. In the contest, the universe’s biggest and most powerful superheroes and supervillains are pitted against one another in a gladiatorial fight, until one emerges victorious.

In Thor: Ragnarok, we see Hulk come up against Thor, who has been captured and forced to fight in the contest as the Grandmaster’s newest recruit. When fellow Avenger Hulk is revealed as his opponent, Thor is at first delighted, saying: “I know him! He’s a friend from work!” before Hulk attacks and the two engage in combat.

At a press conference for the film, Marvel boss Kevin Feige acknowledged the Easter eggs but didn’t elaborate on the identities of the heads: “There are previous Grandmaster champions that we see, as one for Hulk is being constructed, and those are all sort of Easter eggs for the deeper comic universe – that may or may never show up in the cinematic universe, but we thought it’d be fun to celebrate.”

Thor: Ragnarok hits screens in the UK on October 24 and in the US on November 3.

Finding himself imprisoned on the other side of the universe, Thor must compete in a gladiatorial battle against old friend Hulk to win his freedom and get back to Asgard, where the all-powerful Hela is endeavouring to lay waste to the entire planet.

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.